Beatles star John Lennon would have been 64 tomorrow. Jane Woodhead asks the people who knew him: What would he have been like now?

JOHN'S half-sister Julia Baird says she cannot imagine her brother ever finishing performing: "He may even have been performing with Julian and Sean. I also think he would probably have gone into painting and writing - and may even have written his own story or even a novel and some poems.

"We are talking about a multi-talented genuis who had hardly tapped into just one side of his vast capabilities.

"I believe he would also have been anti-war and would probably have been a full time peace campaigner."

. PR man Tony Barrow, who looked after The Beatles for six years, believes John would have resurrected his "world-beating song-writing partnership" with Paul McCartney:

"I actually think that, soon after 1980, he would have come home to England and got himself together with Paul to reform a partnership.

"I do not think for one minute he would have been performing. I think he would have been song-writing."

Tony says John was the most difficult of all The Beatles to get to know: "It did take time to get through to him. He would make jokes - usually at my expense - and had a very acid humour.

"I was starting to wonder what I was doing wrong. But, in reality, I was not doing anything wrong. I think it was actually a barrier he was putting up to hide his own insecurity.

"He did not make friends easily and you were almost an enemy of his until you became a friend; and winning his friendship was something you really had to work at.

"It was actually late one evening - in a club in Liverpool - that the ice was finally broken between the two of us.

"We were not talking about music, we were discussing mortgages and children, and suddenly I seemed to get through to him.

"He was a man for whom I had a great deal of respect."

. Author and broadcaster Spencer Lee says John was very unpredictable: "Whatever people think he would be doing today, he would probably be doing the complete opposite - because that was the sort of person he was."

. Ted Taylor, whose group, Dominoes, rivalled The Beatles in the 60s, says: "Without doubt, John would have been writing and into his art work.

"But I do not think he would have been going out and performing, I actually think live performance was getting a little much for him. I believe he had lost interest in performance and I think, now, he would most probably have been concentrating on the production side of things."

. Eddie Amoo, who used to be in 60s group, The Chants which was backed by The Beatles at The Cavern, thinks John would have been sitting on his bed in his penthouse apartment in New York talking about peace and love.

"I certainly do not think he would have been performing. I think he was too rich to carry on performing.

"I think he would also have become a massive humanitarian sponsor, rather like Bob Geldof with his Feed The World project."

. Paul McCartney's brother Mike McCartney says: "If it had not been for that mad man, Chapman, John would have been alive and contributing to the world in a creative and artistic sense.

"If he had been here today, he would have been helping to develop a better world and would have been doing it with a sense of humour. It would not have

surprised me if he had still been performing as well."

. Jamie Ferguson from The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street, says he would like to think John would still be making music and maybe collaborating with a modern artist.

He says: "I do believe that much of his music would still be rock and roll but I would like to think that he would also be doing things with modern artists and slightly diversifying from how everyone remembers him - as a rock and roll star. Hopefully he would also have more albums and would maybe even be doing some work with his children.

"I also think he would probably have been turning his attentions to more art work and poetry."

. Veteran DJ Billy Butler met and performed on the same bill as John at The Cavern and at St John's Hall in Bootle. Billy was part of the MerseyBeats at the time.

He says: "I believe he would still be performing but also doing quite a lot of producing. I think he would have been very interested in lots of the young bands which are now emerging in Liverpool.

"I do, however, think he would have been totally appalled by all of The Beatle tribute bands."

Interesting how people are saying "oh no...there's no way he'd still be performing", almost as if they have the inside word via John's afterlife hotline....I'd like to think John would say "well **** you" to all those people, and prove them wrong.